What Is the London and New York Overlap

Two cities at once

London's afternoon is New York's morning. From one o'clock in London, which is eight in the morning in New York, both cities are at their desks, and they stay that way until London goes home at five. Those four hours are the overlap. On the clock under your chart — the broker's feed, which on most brokers runs two hours ahead of London — they are 15:00 to 19:00. It is the only part of the twenty-four hours when the two largest markets in the world are trading at the same time.

The four hours, one by one

Each of the four hours has something in it. At 15:00 on the feed, New York's banks and funds sit down while London's are still working. At 15:30 the scheduled American numbers are released — jobs, inflation, growth — on dates known weeks ahead. At 16:30 the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq open, and the American stock indices begin their day. At 19:00 London's desks close, and New York carries the rest of the evening on its own. Four hours, four events, in the same order every working day.

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